San Mateo-Foster City Real Estate News

The school scores for our elementary and high school districts have been published for 2008.  I will break down each elementary district by school and then move to the San Mateo Union High School District, by school. 

What you need to know about these numbers:  If you see a letter "grade" of A or D it is not a grade at all.  The letter A means the school surpassed the statewide goal in 2007 and therfore, wasn't given a goal for 2008.  The letter D means the district did not receive any goal or target information for 2008.  It does not mean they didn't do well! 

This is how to read the charts, the first number is the 2008 score.  The second number is the 2007 score.  The third is either an A, D or the expected growth by the school.  The fourth number is the actual growth, or lack thereof.

Burlingame Elementary School District

   School                                                  2008   2007       

If you're like me, you look forward to the annual Dickens House Holiday Boutique shopping extravaganza every fall.  It's always fun to go see the house that was selected and then decorated and filled with gift ideas for family and friends.  This year you can have the opportunity to see the house in all its glory prior to being laden full of gifts.  The Dickens Design Tour runs for two weekends in September and it starts this Thursday, September 11th running through September 15th, and then again the following weekend, Thursday, September 18th through September 22nd.

The house selected this year is a newly constructed 5000 square foot, 4 bedroom, 5 bath French-style home located at 333 Uplands Drive in Hillsborough.  Seven local interior designer have each taken at least one room to design with their own personality and creativity. Here's your chance to see the house and the rooms unencumbered with gift items on every surface and crowed with shoppers.

Meet the Designers

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http://www.wilkasgroup.com/004371

The City of Burlingame's Adopt-a-Unit committee is going to hold a Boxing Party tomorrow evening at the Central County Fire Station #34 on California Drive.  Many hands make light work, as they say, and you might like to come and help pack up boxes for shipment to our troops.

Burlingame adopted Bravo Company, 1st Battalion/327 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division back in 2004 and today these men and women are nearing the end of their third tour of duty in Iraq.  There is a great need for simple things for these soldiers stationed so far away from home.  If you want to help, be there at 7 PM tomorrow evening (September 9th).

Here's a list of items they need:

1. AA & AAA Batteries
2. Baby wipes with aloe
3. Canned or packaged nuts (no larger than 16oz cans)
4. CDs & DVDs (copies work fine)
5. Deep Woods Off® with DEET (pump spray only)
6. Games (playing cards, dominoes, chess, etc.)
7. Gold Bond® hand lotion & medicated foot powder
8. Graphite powder (locksmith type)
9. Gum Hiking socks -- green, NOT 100% cotton)
10. Jerky (all kinds)
11. Lip balm
12. Magazines with puzzles
13. Meals in a can with pull top (chili, Spaghetti O's, etc.)
14. Military tan T-shirt (M, LG, XLG)
15. Nasal pump spray
16. Neck coolers with polymer
17. Packaged cookies
18. Powdered drink mixes
19. Q-tips®
20. Ramen noodles
21. Snacks (candy bars, popcorn, etc.)
22. Video games
23. Visine®  or any other kind of eye drops

As a planned community, Foster City has apartments, condos, townhouses and single family homes all over the city.  This week we're looking at the market report for what our MLS calls Class 2 homes, or Condos and Townhouses.  Last week there were 43 homes on the market ranging between a low of $455,000 and high of $1,298,000.  The median price was $715,000 and this was likely a condo that has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.  Townhouses are generally larger and cost at or above the median price.  We saw 4 units absorbed, meaning they either sold or went off the market for some reason.

How long are these on the market?

Condos usually take longer to sell in a down market and right now the average days it takes to sell a class 2 property is 72.  This is still within what I consider to be a normal market, meaning it's taking less than 90 days to sell. 

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Last week Foster City had 31 houses for sale ranging in price between $868,000 and $2,275,000. These houses are obviously quite different.  We haven't seen a single family house for sale in the $800,000's for quite some time and this is a small house (1280 square feet) on a small lot, but, this is a house in Foster City where the schools are tops and the commute is easy.  The most expensive homes in Foster City sit on the water with lovely views, boat docks.  Last week we saw 8 houses absorbed, meaning either sold or off the market for other reasons.

Days on the Market

The average Days on the Market (DOM) is 53 and that's higher than it has been lately but if you look at the chart above you can see days on market have been everywhere this year.  Altos Research indicated that we're seeing a rising trend in DOM, price per square foot and inventory over the quarter year.

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